Rochester's City Council: For the first time in a very, very long time, they failed to deliver their usual 9-0 ( unanimous ) voting pattern!

Something very unusual occurred last night ( March 19, 2013 ) at Rochester’s monthly City Council meeting.

It was NOT like a lunar eclipse, a meteor shower or an aurora borealis.

While as majestic and awe inspiring as those events are, they are predictable and occur with relative frequency. They are not “unusual.”

What I am referring to is, last night, for the first time in a very, VERY long time, legislation passed by Rochester’s City Council did NOT occur with the usual 9-0 ( unanimous ) vote.

Well, at least for two pieces of legislation: approving a ten-year lease for a police substation in the Sibley Building AND $1 million to renovate it!

Ten years ago, then-police chief Duffy eliminated the neighborhood police precincts in favor of an east-west headquarters in order to save $1 million. THAT was a one-shot deal, and the effect upon the neighborhoods was disastrous.

The neighborhoods felt betrayed and abandoned.

Nor were the neighborhoods reassured by the police department’s frequent claims that response times are actually down. We didn’t believe them.

Ignoring neighborhoods, especially the poorer ones where crime is rife, or those neighborhoods that are “in transition” ( a euphemism for decay and entropy ), has been a hallmark feature of the Duffy/Richards administration.

The Honorable Adam McFadden, City Councilman for the south district, stated that he has long been demanding greater police presence in some of the more crime-ridden neighborhoods of his district. A police substation in the Sibley Building would not cut it. And it was too expensive; the money would be put to better use to fund summer programs for urban youth to cut down on crime.

Alex White, Green Party candidate for mayor, made the same statement to City Council just prior to its regular meeting. Alex also pointed out that there were numerous buildings downtown that Citygov could buy for far less than renting and renovating space in the Sibley Building.

Nor was Richards’ “explanation” for such a move very convincing.

Mr. McFadden was one of the three City Councilmen who voted against such a move. He was joined in opposing it by City Councilman-at-large the Honorable Loretta Scott and City Council President the Honorable Lovely A. Warren, Esquire.

But the bill passed 6-3; Mayor Richards got what he wanted.

A police substation is merely the latest focal point in Richards’ rather murky plans for downtown revitalization…at a time when Rochester will be hard-pressed to balance this year’s budget without making cuts to essential services. A police substation in the Sibley Building is actually a consolation prize for Boston’s Winn Company, which recently purchased that valuable piece of downtown real estate for a pittance.

For no really good reason, the Winn Company purchased the Sibley Building thinking that Monroe Community College’s downtown campus would remain its tenant. MCC already made it clear before the Winn Company ever bought the Sibley Building that they wanted to move. When it became clear to the Winn Company that Richards really had no influence over MCC’s decision whatsoever, they attempted to offer MCC a deal to stay: they would charge MCC less to renovate the Sibley Building for their purposes than moving the downtown campus would cost.

It was a case of “too little, too late.”

So Richards provided the Winn Company with a new tenant: the police substation, courtesy of Rochester’s taxpayers!

While it was delightful to see conflicting opinions on this subject, or any subject, for that matter, occurring at a public meeting of Rochester’s City Council, old habits die hard. The rest of the meeting produced the usual 9-0 voting pattern, with an abstention by City Councilman-at-large Matt Haag in the area of promoting sexual health for young people, and his sole opposition to amending the city charter with respect to financial disclosure statements.

In short, these were unique occurrences. They are NOT predictable. But it does show that on very rare occasions, some City Councilman CAN think apart from the herd.

Just not enough to overturn the mayor’s proposed legislation, even if such legislation has a negative impact on the majority of the taxpayers of Rochester, and is detrimental to the neighborhoods!

Monroe Community College has long sought to move its downtown campus out of the Sibley Building.

MCC’s administrators have been claiming for years that their quarters in the Sibley Building are NOT suitable for their purposes. Buildings on the site of the dying Kodak Empire on State Street, they said, would be “ideal.”

Tonight, the Monroe County Legislature voted to approve spending $3 million towards that purpose. The total cost to renovate and refit those Kodak buildings is supposed to be $72 million, although it is more likely that the total cost will exceed $75 million.

Of course, the vote to move MCC from the Sibley Building was divided ( as usual ) along partisan lines, 19 – 9.

The Democrats, led by minority leader Carrie Andrews, opposed such a move.

“Why the rush?”

Except that MCC has been looking to move from the Sibley Building for a very long time.

Worse, for the Democrats, is that they recently supported a bond issue relating to MCC. They claim they voted for it because the location wasn’t mentioned.

But surely, since the Republican majority made no bones about favoring the move to State Street, the Democrats saw through that sleight of hand. They certainly couldn’t have been that naïve!

The ladies protested too much tonight.

After all, what else could they have done?

Rochester’s Democratic mayor, Tom Richards, wanted MCC to stay put in the Sibley Building as part of Citygov’s goal to reinvigorate downtown. MCC’s presence downtown for over 20 years has had no effect in that direction.

The Winn Company, which purchased the Sibley Building in a shrewd business deal with Citygov, wanted MCC to stay simply because the downtown campus is its only major tenant. The Winn company’s last ditch attempt to keep MCC as their tenant by claiming remaining in the Sibley Building would somehow “save” MCC $18 million was largely unconvincing.

In short, this decision to move MCC to State Street was a serious blow to Richards’ prestige as he seeks to be re-elected after his poor but victorious showing in the “special election” of 2011. It revealed his inability to influence or persuade the Republican majority in the County Legislature. Just like Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks was unable to persuade the Democratically monopolized Citygov to approve her “Renaissance Square” project four years ago. That, too, would have built a new campus for MCC, although it would have been just across the street from the Sibley Building!

Ahhh, Karma!

Nor could the Republican majority in the County Legislature be moved by any embarrassments this might cause the mayor in regards to the Winn Company. But it might be seen as “icing on the cake,” since they were supportive of moving MCC to the State Street location long before anyone in Rochester ever heard of the Winn company.

As for the Winn Company, they had better be more concerned with attracting some major retailers into the Sibley Building, since 60% of it will be vacant when MCC leaves in four years’ time, at the expiration of their lease.

Unfortunately, for the Republicans, buying property on State Street and refitting it for MCC comes under the category of “be careful what you wish for; you might actually get it.” Because nobody knows the real cost this undertaking will involve, and all of it will be borne by the taxpayers of Monroe County but mostly by the taxpayers of Rochester, owing to the “chargebacks” based on use.

Anne Kress, MCC’s president, stated tonight that this decision is more “fiscally responsible” than remaining at the Sibley Building.

How so? And where will the “real savings” be?

There won’t be any savings at all.

The “new” buildings on State Street will have twice as much square footage as MCC currently leases in the Sibley Building, so roughly half of the new campus will remain empty. That might change in time. Maintaining the new campus will be at the taxpayers’ expense, since Monroe County will own the State Street campus “in trust” for MCC.

Nor will “operation costs” diminish because the county owns the building.

It is not going to be cheaper than renting space in the Sibley Building…and there will still be support pillars in the “new” building that can’t be eliminated. Just like the ones MCC officials complained about in the Sibley Building.

Of course, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans ever bothered to answer questions about a satellite campus downtown, anyway.

Like, how many full-time equivalent students ( FTEs ) make use of the downtown campus?

What courses are being offered downtown that aren’t being offered at the main campus?

Why aren’t those courses offered at the main campus?

If most of the students who use the downtown campus don’t have access to vehicles to take them to the main campus, why is having a huge parking lot for the State Street site such a plus?

How much is the administrative cost for a satellite campus?

I’ve asked these questions before. Nobody had any real answers, apart from “The downtown campus has taken on a life of its own in the last twenty years.”

So, where does that leave us?

Well, MCC is getting what it wants, to move out of the Sibley Building to the State Street site.

The Republicans in the County Legislature got the chance to stick it to the Democratic mayor of Rochester, damn the cost to the taxpayers.

The Democrats in the County Legislature are crying “foul,” although they willingly cooperated with the necessary legislation that led up to tonight’s vote.

The taxpayers of Monroe County ( especially those in the City of Rochester ) will be noticing higher chargebacks in their county tax bill for MCC.

And nobody has really bothered to state why, in the long run, either location would be better for the students attending the downtown campus.

Of course, if having a downtown campus is so convenient, wouldn’t it make sense to buy all of Kodak’s State Street property and move the whole of MCC there? After all, it’s only the taxpayers’ money!

The Sibley Building: Despite the tortured last minute antics of the Winn Company and the devil's bargain they made with Citygov, MCC will probably move away from it after the expiration of their lease.

The Boston-based Winn Company, which recently purchased the Sibley Building downtown, is worried that Monroe Community College might actually move its downtown campus to a location on State Street, currently owned by the dying Kodak Empire.

MCC is currently the only tenant in the Sibley Building.

What took the Winn Company so long to get worried about it?

MCC has been complaining for years that the Sibley Building is “unsuitable” for MCC’s purposes. MCC has been looking for other locations long before the Winn company bought the Sibley Building. And MCC is squarely under the thumb of the Republican controlled Monroe County Legislature.

While it is the fondest wish of the mayor who now is and Rochester’s Democratically monopolized Citygov to keep MCC’s downtown campus at its current location in the Sibley Building, and make it a focal point of the Potemkin Village they hope to create in its environs, the county Republicans have no wish to pull the mayor’s chestnuts out of the fire for him. The county Republicans have been pursuing the possibility of relocating MCC’s downtown campus to the State Street location for over a year. Tant pis to the mayor’s plans.

It almost seems that Karma has caught up with the devil’s deal the mayor made with the Winn Company. The Wynn Company was not required to give Rochester’s taxpayers any assurances that they would indeed do what they said they would to redevelop the Sibley Building. The mayor, on the other hand, never really informed the Winn Company of the disastrous political partisanship that exists between the Democrats and Republican in this area. Nor is it probable that the mayor informed the Winn Company that he was not competent to deal with the subject of MCC in the first place.

It resembles as case of a Gypsy and a hustler picking each others’ pockets!

So, now the Winn Company desperately wants to keep its only tenant in the Sibley Building, claiming that by staying there, MCC would be saving the taxpayers $18 million in construction costs. The Winn company has also knocked an additional $10 million off of what they claimed would be the cost of renovating the Sibley Building.

Odd, that.

This comes at the 11th hour.

On Tuesday, February 12, the Republican controlled Monroe County Legislature will vote to purchase a parcel of Kodak’s State Street property. It will probably succeed, and in three years’ time, the Winn Company will lose its only tenant in the Sibley Building.

As for the minority Democrats sitting in the County Legislature, they can hardly claim that this will be a surprise. The legislation passed the County Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee last week with a 9 – 1 vote. It has been described by the D&C as “bipartisan.” Also, according to the D&C: “A month earlier, a bonding resolution to finance a new downtown campus won bipartisan approval in the County Legislature, but only after the Republican majority appeased Democrats by removing references to specific locations.”

Were the Democrats in the County Legislature really gulled by this sleight of hand involving the bonding resolution, or did they enter into this with their eyes wide shut, knowing full well the Republican majority would ultimately move MCC’s downtown campus to the State Street site? And can such an action be referred to as being truly “bipartisan?”

This has not exactly been the Democrats’ “finest hour.” They must have known what was going to happen, but it would have been better to have been shot for sheep as for lambs.

As for the Republican majority, well, they haven’t been upfront with us either. The D&C has reported that they claim the new MCC downtown campus will cost $72 million to complete, while others say $75 million.

In March of 2012, Republican Anthony James Micciche, County Legislator for the 26th district, was delighted to tell the Rochester Republican Committee that moving the MCC campus to State Street would “save” $10 million. At that time, Micciche didn’t say when, how or why.

Six months later, after the Charlotte Community Association’s monthly meeting, Micciche rather unconvincingly claimed that the $10 million savings would be in “operational costs.”

Last night ( February 6 ) at the Maplewood Neighborhood Association’s monthly meeting, Micciche was asked if he favored moving MCC’s downtown campus or keeping it where it is. Micciche, famous for his tap dancing routine, claimed that he was “non-committal” on the subject. This was odd, given his previous statements in support of MCC moving to State Street and how undertaking such a step would result in “saving” the taxpayers money.

But, then again, Micciche made those statements at different locations, geared towards different audiences.

And nobody, Democrat or Republican, has ever bothered to explain why a downtown campus for MCC is a necessity!

Sure, some people want a satellite campus downtown. For some people, it is a matter of convenience.

Personally, I would like rain to be beer. But that is not a necessity, either.

So, the Winn Company owns the Sibley Building. It will be making ridiculously small payments to the city in lieu of taxes. The Winn company will be losing its only tenant, MCC, which will be moving to a new location on State Street after its lease expires. The Republican controlled County Legislature will be voting to approve purchasing the State Street cite on Tuesday, which will undoubtedly pass because the Democrats have placed themselves between a rock and a hard place. The Democrats? Well, if they oppose it, the Republicans will say that they oppose improving the quality of education in Rochester. If the Democrats approve it, no matter how grudgingly, the mayor ends up with egg on his face, and a focal point for “downtown revitalization” goes up in smoke.

This is the “bipartisanship” County Executive Maggie Brooks forever keeps yammering about.

The Winn company certainly didn’t know what it was getting into when it bought the Sibley Building!

The Gannet Building: Another historic building in downtown Rochester up for sale.

Saturday’s announcement by the D&C that the Gannett Building, their home, is going up for sale should have come as no surprise. Given the facts that the D&C has reduced its staff by two thirds over the last few years, that the newspaper itself has become pitifully thin and their hard-copy subscriptions have fallen off badly over the last few years, this only makes good sense. Gannett simply doesn’t need so large a building anymore.

It still seems a shame, though. The Gannett Building is an impressive structure that has existed for over eighty years. Gannett’s name is deeply carved in the stone façade of the building. Its location seems ideal for a daily newspaper, in the heart of downtown Rochester and within spitting distance of the courthouse, City Hall, the Monroe County Office Building and the jail.

Supposedly, Gannett ( the company that owns the D&C, Rochester’s only daily newspaper ) will be leasing space somewhere else in downtown Rochester. Gannett isn’t looking to buy a smaller building, which would indicate their support of and involvement in whatever schemes for downtown redevelopment are being discussed.

The fact that Paetec wasn’t planning on owning “Paetec Tower,” merely leasing the building ( which was never built anyway ), raised a lot of red flags. Arunas Chesonis’ commitment to Rochester and downtown redevelopment wasn’t seen as being sincere. THAT whole mess left a sour taste in many peoples’ mouths, as well as leaving egg on the faces of the Citygov officials who actively participated in it.

The D&C can always move into the Sibley Building, since the Wynn Company will need tenants there when MCC departs in a few years.

Still, what to do with the historic Gannett Building? Especially when other historic downtown structures like the Edwards Building have been up for sale for years?

Because of the Gannett Building’s “historic” nature, developers would be able to make use of various tax credits when they purchase the building.

The Gannett Building can become an office building for the attorneys who proliferate in that neck of the woods downtown. Its proximity to the courthouse would make it ideal for that. Mixed office and retail space, with a restaurant and a few condos thrown in for good measure? Sounds great, only there’s no real parking to support those endeavors, especially after “office hours.”

Hopefully, whatever happens will be between Gannett and the prospective buyers, NOT Citygov. And, with any luck, the Gannett Building will still remain, unlike so many other buildings that were part of Rochester’s history.

Still, it’s sad to see Gannett moving out of the building named for them.

Downtown Rochester in its heyday: blowzy charm, but thriving and bustling!

There has been much talk about redeveloping downtown Rochester for the last twenty or so years; the recent purchase of the Sibley Building by Boston’s Wynn Company is just the latest chapter in that ongoing saga.

The last, rich gasp of a thriving and bustling downtown Rochester was in the 1960′s and 1970′s.

Main Street was lined with nationally and locally owned department stores. Locally owned specialty stores filled in the gaps. There were restaurants, bars and nightclubs downtown. At one time, there were as many as eight movie theatres within the confines of the Inner Loop.

Admittedly, there were a jumble of architectural styles along Main Street, but this only added to its blowzy charm! And who could forget the image of “Jenny” at the corner of Main Street and North Clinton Avenue?

Downtown was THE destination in Monroe County!

Unfortunately, at the same time, “white flight” to the suburbs was taking place. The riots of 1964 fueled this process, leaving a burnt out ring surrounding downtown. Suburban plazas and shopping malls were springing up to take the place of downtown Rochester as a “safe” shopping venue. Even the locally owned Wegmans supermarket chain abandoned Rochester, leaving only one city location open, on the city’s toney east side.

National retail chains were buying out the local department stores, closing up their downtown locations to concentrate on the suburbs. The locally-owned specialty shops followed suit and Rochester’s night life soon became a thing of the past.

Downtown Rochester became a ghost town after 5 PM and on weekends.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to know what to do about it, how to revitalize or reinvent Rochester. Numerous attempts to reverse downtown’s decline into decay have all failed, and have been costly failures.

To “save” the Sibley Building, Citygov turned it over to Wilmorite. The County promptly located MCC’s downtown campus there so Wilmorite’s dummy corporation, Rochwil, would have a rent paying tenant. This satellite campus serves no other real purpose ( except to provide employment for its politically appointed administration, at the taxpayers’ expense ). However, the few hundred students making use of this satellite campus do provide bodies downtown, to make it look busy. It’s all done with mirrors, you see.

Ex-mayor Bill Johnson occasionally used hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund studies on how to improve downtown Rochester, only to ignore the results. Johnson promptly attempted to create a new entertainment venue away from downtown Rochester: High Falls! THAT proved to be a costly mistake!

Nor did Frontier Field and Sahlen Stadium provide any benefit to downtown Rochester; people attending events at those locations promptly leave the area at their conclusion. There is nothing downtown for them to stick around for.

Ill-conceived plans to revitalize downtown Rochester, like “Renaissance Square” and “Paetec Tower” ( pushed by Republicans for the former and Democrats for the latter ), went down in costly flames.

So, how to revitalize downtown?

Well, there are two schools of thought about the matter.

One is to bring businesses, goods and services back to downtown Rochester that will entice people into returning to make use of them. That sounds good, except that major retailers don’t see downtown Rochester has having a market for them. Rochester is also seen as being “unsafe,” which is hardly an inducement for such businesses to locate here. UNLESS Citygov offers them deals that we cannot afford, like with Wilmorite and the Wynn Company, only more!

Subscribing to that school of thought are the wealthy social and cultural elites of Rochester, typified by millionaire Arnold Rothschild. Rothschild believes that Rochester will be revitalized by building a “Broadway-style Theatre” there. Such a theatre was a focal point of the “Renaissance Square” fiasco, although there was no money for that part of the project. While Rothschild and the Rochester Broadway Theatre League say such a theatre is absolutely necessary ( it isn’t, but they want it ), they are unwilling to fund its creation. They want it built at the taxpayers’ expense. This will somehow cause people to flock to downtown Rochester, and other affiliated businesses will spring up as a result.

The threat, of course, is if Rochester won’t do it, the Rochester Broadway Theatre League will build it elsewhere…if they can find someone to foot the bill!

For once, Mayor Richards hasn’t given in to this bit of blackmail.

And the Rochester Broadway Theatre League claims that they will be locating to the Medley Centre ( i.e., the failed Irondequoit Mall ).

The second school of thought about downtown revitalization is that if more people reside in downtown Rochester, the businesses, goods and services will follow because then there would be a market for them. The city’s vision of downtown as a “mixed use” site, therefore, focuses strongly on a residential component. In short, to create a downtown “neighborhood.”

This is a unique and somewhat exciting possibility: downtown was primarily a destination, not really a residential section of Rochester ( save for a few enclaves like Gibbs Street, the YMCA, the YWCA and a few fleabag hotels ).

It also makes some sense.

Then, BAM! Reality!

Most of the housing proposed, whether it be condos or rental apartments, will cost way more than most Rochesterians can afford. They are being geared towards wealthy “empty nesters” from the suburbs. Rochester tried this gambit before with 120 Saint Paul Street in the 1970′s. That ended up becoming subsidized housing.

And if, by some chance, wealthy empty nesters choose to flock to downtown Rochester, won’t that create a rather “elitist” atmosphere there, especially since Rochester ranks 7th nationally for child poverty?

Perhaps they can flood the Inner Loop and turn it into a moat and install drawbridges. We’ll be allowed to cross if we can prove our bank accounts are big enough.

And what will be the taxpayers’ cost to subsidize these developers of luxury condos and apartments, at a time when Rochester has a surplus of available housing in other neighborhoods?

One need only look at the parking lot on the northwest corner of Main and Fitzhugh Streets.

Citygov turned over that property to a developer who promptly built townhouses on the site. Perpetual candidate Alex White correctly pointed out that Rochester will be losing more in revenue than it will be gaining by this development!

Is that to be the typical fate of downtown redevelopment or revitalization? This at a time our national economy is in a shambles, and is not about to get better any time soon.

Probably.

So, what is the answer?

I really don’t know, except that Citygov ought to look more carefully into what they are doing before embarking on anymore expensive disasters.

One thing I do know: downtown Rochester has changed forever, and its revitalization has been badly bungled, whatever shape it will take.

Let’s face it, despite official “explanations,” the $22-plus million that the Wilmorite Corporation’s subsidiary Rochwil owes Rochester is a convoluted mess. Rochwil was created during the Ryan administration for the sole purpose of owning the Sibley Building, with no clear responsibility to pay Rochester anything in the way of taxes, or to repay its loans from the city. The purpose of that was to keep the Sibley Building open.

That was twenty-some years ago, when Rochester still had plenty of money to waste, and nobody looked too closely at the antics of Citygov. Life was good, and the creation of an entity such as Rochwil was seen as sufficient unto the day.

But if the current administration hasn’t recognized that the twentieth century has been over for some time now, they also haven’t noticed that the twenty-first century has already begun. They have been public outcries over High Falls, Midtown, the Fast Ferry, Sahlen Stadium and Pier 45, to name a few. That hasn’t stopped Citygov from pursuing those expensive projects while our tax-base and population continues to decline, but they no longer have the comfort of public silence anymore.

Hence the desperate need of so many of our elected officials to quote or allude to Edmund Burke!

Everyone is fed up with the situation involving the Sibley Building and Rochwil, but what to DO about it?

That’s the $64,000 question!

Some people hope that Rochwil can find a buyer for the building. But why should Rochwil DO anything like that? MCC leases parts of the building, and pays their multi-million dollar annual rent to Rochwil, of which Rochester gets not a sniff.

Some people think that Citygov should foreclose on the Sibley Building, and apply the rent that MCC pays to the city treasury. Curiously enough, the same people are opposed to what they call the city’s practice of “corporate welfare” ( i.e., “Collegetown,” for example ). They are the same people who are opposed to Citygov’s interference in business.

A quick trip west is called for here, to Storey County, Nevada. It is the location of Virginia City, made famous by the long-running television western series “Bonanza.”

It was also the site of the Mustang Ranch, one of the numerous legal bawdy houses that can be found in Nevada. It was also the largest.

In 1999, owner Jon Conforte was brought up on charges of racketeering and tax evasion. Finding the change in the weather not to his liking, Conforte thought that the more salubrious climate of Brazil would be better for his health and fled there. Brazil must have found Conforte refreshing, as well, because they refused to allow the US to extradite him.

So the federal government seized the Mustang Ranch. Contrary to popular belief, the federal government never actually “ran” the bawdy house, although it IS a related business. While the Mustang Ranch was closed, Storey County went broke; the sales taxes from the bawdy house for services rendered kept that county solvent. The Mustang Ranch was Storey County’s biggest taxpayer!

What would the Cartwrights think?

In 2002, the contents of the Mustang Ranch were auctioned off; in 2003 the buildings were sold to another “businessman,” who moved them five miles down the road to his already existing bawdy house. He finally got the rights to use the name “Mustang Ranch” in 2006.

Hopefully, Storey County’s finances got back on track after several years of government interference.

As we fly back east, you might ask what has this got to do with foreclosing on the Sibley Building?

Plenty.

First of all, foreclosing on a large property is a long drawn out process, especially if the owners are big contributors to the elected officials who make up Citygov. Unlike Jon Conforte, they haven’t been prosecuted for committing any crimes.

Secondly, would Rochwil willingly agree to pass into oblivion while they are still making millions in rent from MCC? That makes no sense whatsoever, especially since they were desperate NOT to have MCC move!

Finally, MCC IS planning on moving to the site of the Kodak Office Building on State Street within the next few years. By the time Citygov forecloses on the Sibley Building, MCC will be gone, and there will be no rent to be gotten from an empty store. But Citygov will be responsible for its maintenance AND trying to find a buyer for it. Citygov’s dealings with Paetec in a similar matter are hardly an inspiring precedent.

Rochester might end up owning an empty building for years!

Given the fact that Rochester is stuck with a rather stupid arrangement about the Sibley Building, ANY solutions about it would be worth discussing. But unless the foreclosure on the Sibley Building occurs immediately ( so we can get something from the rent MCC pays before they vacate the building in a few years ), we’ll be stuck paying out more for it in the long run.

The current debate over “Collegetown,” a proposed 16 acre development along Mt. Hope Avenue on land belonging to the University of Rochester, isn’t really all THAT difficult to grasp. Rochester’s mayor who now is wants to get a loan of $20 million to loan to the developers of the project, which in turn will benefit the students of the University of Rochester, which is currently the largest single employer in the area. The University of Rochester, in turn, will contribute NOTHING towards this project! THAT is the bottom line!

We are assured that the city will get some benefit from “Collegetown” in the distant future, probably from the sales taxes on the goods and services that will be sold there. We are also being cheerfully told that “Collegetown” will be open to the public!

If the powers that be have already forseen in their foggy crystal balls that “Collegetown” will be a perfectly marvelous success, why isn’t the U of R contributing anything towards its construction? Especially since they and their students will be the primary beneficiaries of this development!

City Councilman Adam McFadden is correct in saying that the city should NOT get into the area of financing such projects. There are other areas in Rochester that desperately need cash for redevelopment, especially with the $20 million shortfall the city’s budget faces this year. The city is looking to cut essential services in order to balance the budget.

Hmmm. $20 million. An odd coincidence.

McFadden is correct about city government NOT getting involved in the area of high finance; it HAS proved to be a miserable failure in those areas in years past. Look at the Sibley Building and Wilmorite; High Falls; the Fast Ferry! And let’s NOT forget “Paetec Tower!” Tens of millions of dollars down the toilet because city government really didn’t know what they were doing.

Perhaps the crystal ball city government is using in this instance is defective. The “vertical hold” is shot! Perhaps they should be using Tarot Cards or tea leaves to predict the outcome of this mess.

At any rate, the mayor who now is withdrew the request for the loan for “Collegetown’s” developers for the present. It simply would not do to have city council approve getting a loan to loan out to yet another private developer while asking residents to pay more to do with less in the areas of services that make this city a desirable place to live. He’ll wait until after the budget gets approved!

It’s doubtful that city council will decline to approve the application for the loan. After all, they never have been able to deny the mayor who is anything. Or, with one notable exception, ANY mayor who was, either.

Hopefully, City Councilman McFadden will stick to his guns on this issue.

Contributors

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Rich Gardner has been writing about the history, culture and waterways of Upstate New York for years. His articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, and one book, Learning to Walk. He is an alumnus of Brighton High School and SUNY Geneseo. He operates Upstate Resume & Writing Service in Brighton and recently moved to Corn Hill, where he is already involved in community projects. "I enjoy the 'Aha!' moments of learning new things, conceptual and literal. City living is a great teacher."

Ken Warner grew up in Brockport and first experienced Rochester as a messenger boy for a law firm in Midtown Tower. He recently moved downtown into a loft on the 13th floor of the Temple Building with a view of the Liberty Poll and works in the Powers Building overlooking Rochester’s four corners as Executive Director for UNICON, an organization devoted to bringing economic development to the community. He hopes to use his Rochester Blog to share his observations from these unique views of downtown.